Drag Racer “Dyno” Don Nicholson: Death of an Icon

1927-2006

“Dyno Don” Nicholson, a pioneer drag racer whose career spanned sixdecades and became an icon in both Funny Cars and Pro Stocks passed awayin Southern California Tuesday, January 24.

Nicholson began racing on the dry lakes of El Mirage, California in thelate 1940’s, as one of the restless generation of Americans who embracedall forms of racing after the end of World War II. Nicholson’s careerwas defined by professional drag racing, but he began by building anddriving circle track “jalopies”. However, it was in drag racing thathis “Dyno Don” legend was forged.

“Dyno Don” gained the nickname for his prowess with using a chassisdynamometer to bring full bodied vehicles to maximum power output. Hisdyno tuning skills were learned while working as a line mechanic at aChevrolet dealership. Nicholson’s abilities as a tuner earned him areputation and a steady line of customers in the SoCal area. Hisgrowing reputation was bolstered when he drove his own 1961 ChevyBiscayne 409 sedan to impressive 12-second clockings at the ’61 NHRAWinternationals. His success also gained him contact with thehorsepower-hungry engineering staff at Chevrolet, putting him on theinside for factory sponsored vehicles and the special racing parts beingdeveloped in Detroit.

After only two years of working with Chevy, Nicholson’s situation withGM soured. Following a 1963 agreement between Detroit’s “Big Three”(GM, Ford and Chrysler) to abandon all factory sponsored racingprograms; Nicholson saw his Chevy vehicles becoming seriouslyuncompetitive. He soon left Chevy behind, joining Ford’sLincoln-Mercury Division for one of their new 1964 Mercury Comet’s. These all-out race cars featured a 427 Ford “FE Series”, Medium-RiserV-8 stuffed into a Comet coupe with fiberglass front end components tofurther lighten the already featherweight Comets. The cars were classedas “A/Factory Experimental”, and Nicholson’s success at open competitionand match racing further enhanced his growing legend as a driver andtuner.

The A/FX cars progressed into faster and more powerful modified vehiclesthat eventually became known as “Funny Cars” for their alteredwheelbase, highly modified appearance. In 1966 Nicholson’s MercuryDivision sponsor trumped the emerging genre with its tube chassied,fiberglass, flip-top bodied Comet, the “Eliminator I”. Powered by aFord 427 SOHC “Cammer” V-8, Nicholson’s newest ride set the class backon its heels. His ’66 campaign was so dominant that some punditspredicted the demise of the Funny Car “craze” due solely to Nicholson’snearly perfect win-loss record.

Chassis refinements and even more power from a now supercharged, nitroburning 427 SOHC engine dipped the ’67 vintage Comets of Nicholson andhis Mercury teammate, “Fast Eddie” Schartman into the seven-second rangeat 180+ mph. Although teammates, Nicholson and Schartman had an oftenstrained relationship. The ultra competitive and frequently outspokenSchartman relished any opportunity to aim verbal “zingers” at histeammate. Nicholson, in the low-key fashion that earmarked his career,merely shrugged off the affronts and kept on winning, gaining more andmore fans in the process.

It was the high-HP, supercharged engines that got Nicholson seriouslythinking about the dangers of driving a nitro fueled time bomb. Severalfellow drivers had been seriously burned after engine or transmissionexplosions and crashes. By 1969 Nicholson dropped out of the fray.

Rather than leave behind his career as a racer, Nicholson opted onceagain for gasoline and carburetors, this time with a 427 SOHC Fordpowered Maverick. Running open competition as an A/Modified Productionentry and match races against other similar “Outlaw Heads-Up SuperStocks”, Nicholson was again content and competitive. These “outlaw”match racers were made “legal” in 1970 when both NHRA and AHRAintroduced Pro Stock (AHRA called their class “Super Stock”, but therules were similar) at their early winter events.

Pro Stock was an immediate success for both sanctions. Fans jammed thestands to watch their heroes, many of them ex-Funny Car drivers,power-shift and pull wheelstands in their new factory hot rods. Thelegend of “Dyno Don” grew with the new category. Just as with the earlyFunny Cars, Nicholson’s name and reputation carried the banner for loyalFord racing fans.

Nicholson went on to field several more strictly Ford Pro Stock carsafter the SOHC Maverick. In 1977, at the age of 50, he captured theNHRA Pro Stock Winston World Championship title at the wheel of a 351Cleveland powered Mustang-II. Nicholson’s Ford loyalties lasted untilthe 1984 season, when he fielded an Oldsmobile (powered by a big-blockChevy) prior to retiring at age 57.

In 1988 “Dyno Don” returned from his retirement, this time at the wheelof a nostalgia match race version of the 1962 Chevy “Bubble Top” Bel-Air409 sedan in which he gained national fame in the early 1960’s. Nicholson’s Bel-Air ran as quick as 7.50 and 150+ mph, competing againstfellow nostalgia racers such as Arnie “Farmer” Beswick’s Pontiac Tempestand others.

With his health and age finally slowing him, Nicholson again retired. His lifetime of drag racing achievements were recognized when he wasinducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, in Ocala,Florida, and the Motorsports Hall of Fame, in Novi, Michigan.

Nicholson’s health had declined over the past few years, and hesuccumbed to the physical and mental ravages of Alzheimer’s disease onTuesday, January 24 in Southern California. Dyno Don Nicholson was 78.